Funeral details for gran who was St Helens youngest mayoress

Last week, the Star reported on the life of Margaret Brennan.

Margaret acted as Mayoress for her dad Thomas Hignett, pictured here with her four older brothers and Thomas (Image: Marina Cottam)

Margaret, who died on June 16 2023, is the daughter of Thomas Hignett, a former Mayor in St Helens from 1954 to 1955, and she acted as his Mayoress as her mum had died a few years earlier.

Margaret with three of her children, some of her grandchildren and her great granddaughter (Image: Marina Cottam)

So when he took up his post as a widower, Margaret stood in to assist him as Mayoress aged just 21, during which time Queen Elizabath II and Prince Phillip visited the town and Phillip danced with Margaret.

Read: Mayoress who danced with Prince Phillip and met the Queen dies aged 90

Her funeral will be on Monday, July 10 at 11am at St Julie's CHurch on Howards Lane, followed by cremation at St Helens Crematorium at 12.30pm and a wake at The Gerard Arms from 1pm.

Family flowers only at the funeral and any donations will be split between the four local community dementia groups that Margaret loved to attend each week.

Margaret at her 90th birthday celebrations with family (Image: Marina Cottam)

In recent years Margaret visited many dementia groups in St Helens and during some of those visits came into contact with previous Mayor Cllr Sue Murphy, who on one occasion gave her a flower as a sign of respect ad invited her to the mayor's parlour.